JAS COMMUNITY MOVIE NIGHT: Whiplash

Experience the intensity, passion, and rhythm of the Academy Award-winning film Whiplash on the big screen at the Paul JAS Center in partnership with Aspen Film. JAS Community Nights — Movie with Aspen Film Special screening of the Academy Award-winning film WHIPLASH (2014) Written and Directed by Damien Chazelle Stars MILES TELLER, J.K. SIMMONS, and MELISSA BENOIST Rated R | Runtime 1 hr 46 min | FREE Andrew Neiman is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite East Coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher, an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man’s life. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability—and his sanity. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT There are a lot of movies about the joy of music. But as a young drummer in a conservatory-style high school jazz orchestra, the emotion I felt the most frequently was a different one: fear. Fear of missing a beat. Fear of losing tempo. Most overwhelmingly, fear of my conductor. With Whiplash, I wanted to make a movie about music that felt like a war movie, or a gangster movie— where instruments replaced weapons, where words felt as violent as guns, and where the action unfolded not on a battlefield, but in a school rehearsal room, or on a concert stage. TRIVIA (psst, psst, remember this!) The director and writer of the film, Damien Chazelle, could not get funding for the movie, so he instead turned it into a short film which screened at Aspen Shortsfest in 2013. The feature-length film was shown at Aspen Filmfest as the festival’s Surprise Screening the following year. Tuesday, September 1 Doors: 5:00 PM | Movie: 6:15 PM Paul JAS Center FREE & Open to the Public